Tata Tiago : Official Review

This is a discussion on Tata Tiago : Official Review within Official New Car Reviews, part of the Team-BHP Reviews category; Originally Posted by payeng
2. It is definitely not a Big Small Car (like the Indica/Vista/Bolt). Dimensions are cute and ...

2. It is definitely not a Big Small Car (like the Indica/Vista/Bolt). Dimensions are cute and compact.

3. And that exactly why (point no. 2) the car probably won't make it as a TAXI

I don't see how a smaller car is directly a positive, but its totally personal opinion in either way so thats that.

As for taxis - On Mumbai roads, you'll practically see any 4 wheeled vehicle that can be registered with RTO as a taxi. It starts with Altos. So size doesn't always directly translate to that now a days. We can hope...

I wonder how Tata business teams must be thinking when launching the car.
Right now, their cars may not sell as personal cars, but at least make hundreds of sales as taxis. If they say we won't sell it as a taxi, the car doesn't sell at all as personal buyers still don't buy it.

What to do in case of an all new car? Quite a dilemma . All the teams will be on their toes for upcoming months monitoring the sales figures every minute for the Tiago.

Do not worry, they have more spacious options like the Etios Liva, Verito Vibe, Nissan Micra, Maruti Swift, Vista and the old Indica. Tiago does not seem to be a good fit for the segment considering its dimensions.

I beg to differ, if Santros and Wagon Rs can be adopted by city taxi operators, what should stop them from casting their eyes on the Tiago, I see plenty of i10s as well these days running as radio taxis in Delhi, so IMHO the Tiago does have that threat, more so due to its 'disruptive' pricing however I hope that the overall VFM proposition of the overall package should not deter buyers upgrading from their Altos and Santros from serioulsy considering the Tiago, if not buying it in huge numbers

I don't see how a smaller car is directly a positive, but its totally personal opinion in either way so thats that.

The Word is NOT SMALL.. its "COMPACT"

Quote:

Originally Posted by Reinhard

As for taxis - On Mumbai roads, you'll practically see any 4 wheeled vehicle that can be registered with RTO as a taxi. It starts with Altos. So size doesn't always directly translate to that now a days. We can hope...

I wonder how Tata business teams must be thinking when launching the car.
Right now, their cars may not sell as personal cars, but at least make hundreds of sales as taxis. If they say we won't sell it as a taxi, the car doesn't sell at all as personal buyers still don't buy it.

What to do in case of an all new car? Quite a dilemma . All the teams will be on their toes for upcoming months monitoring the sales figures every minute for the Tiago.

Cars being used as Taxi's is not the real issue.. even Merc's / BMW's / Audi's are used with Yellow Number plates... the real issue arises when cars with Yellow number plates seem to outnumber the White ones.

One Solution to the Taxi Conundrum could be: CONTINUE manufacturing and selling the Indica/Indigo CS for Taxi Pupose.

I saw the Tiago and sat inside one. Did not start the engine or take it out for a spin.

For its size and its price, the Tiago is one excellent proposition.

It is Maruti, Maruti and Maruti for me when it comes to small cars, but this car impressed me very much.

Frankly, I do not see any reason, other than the Maruti badge and the superior sales/ service/ ownership experience that comes with every Maruti product, to ignore the Tiago and go for the Celerio.

Looks, interior appointments, features, quality, value pricing- everything is there. And with such a long time that Tata spent on its development, I hope they have sorted out most of the possible reliability issues that come with any new car.

Went to Wasan Motors, Borivali for renewal of my Bolt's insurance and saw the entire sales team of the dealer getting a dressing down from the manager. Some of the points being raised (couldn't help overhearing) were:
1. Target of 3 sales closure/ salesperson per month
2. Sales team not pro-actively providing test car to prospective customers despite repeated requests
3. Lazy attitude to follow up on financing options for the customer

The current buzz in the showroom was a far cry from the days when I had walked in to inquire about the bolt. I also came across a unique brochure that had detailed review of Tiago from across all auto magazines and portals (team-bhp missing). My SA informed me the top end Tiago diesel was 6.8L on road Mumbai, and that these are introductory prices for the first 3 months.

Exteriors are very smart with compact and well proportioned dimensions, smaller than i10 Grand and similar to Celerio.

Interiors are refreshingly up market with good quality material, no sign of cost cutting anywhere. Seats are sufficiently cushioned and felt good, got into comfortable driving position in a couple of minutes.
Gear shifts are very smooth with short throws, much better than my current drive (Punto). As already been pointed out, engine noise is very much audible at idle and during the drive at all rev levels, though revs up effortlessly.

NVH levels are the only downer on this rev happy and easy to drive 3 pot motor which I would happily ignore looking at the price and overall VFM package on offer.

This IMO should perform much better in the market than Zest/Bolt bringing some respectable numbers for Tata.

Finally I got time to post this comparison after doing it almost 90% two days ago. I was able to finish it today.

Here it goes. While lot of people are comparing Tiago with Celerio's cost, it actually is lot cheaper than WagonR too.

I had done a comparison of the various variants that both Tiago (Petrol) & Wagon R offers. While doing this comparison I used Hyderabad ex-showroom prices as Hyderabad is neutral in terms of location for both Tata and Maruti. If I used Delhi or Mumbai, it might skew the numbers slightly in one of the car's favor. I ignored any discounts that might be on offer on WagonR. But considering the discounts, viewer will be able to judge what value he/she is getting based on the discount being offered.

Two most relevant variant comparisons would be between the two below variants for each car as they are priced very closed to each other. I used brochures of both the cars downloaded from the respective website for this comparison. This comparison is purely against what are listed as features in the respective brochure and does not looks into other subjective opinions as ASS, handling, ride quality etc. There could be some features available in both the cars, but might not have been listed that way in the brochure for one of the car. I had listed those features separately against the car that got this feature listed, but marking empty for the other car where it is not listed. I had relied on my assumption in certain cases for assuming a certain feature to be available in the other car as well.

i) Tiago XM (O) (Rs 4,20,637/-) & WagonR LXi (Rs 4,26, 489/-)

&

ii) Tiago XZ (Rs 4,89,233/-) & WagonR VXi (O) (Rs 4,85,513/-)

Starting with the first/entry level variant.

Tiago XM (O) (Rs 4,20,637/-) & WagonR LXi (Rs 4,26, 489/-)

Advantage WagonR

Advantage Tiago

Common Features

Subjective Features: Features that could be specific to the car (or) they are just visual elements and probably Manufacturer might have listed them as feature as they might not have enough content to fill up the brochure.

Features that were assumed to be available in both the cars, although they might not have been listed in both the brochures. Assumption for the feature to exist is made against a car that has a blank against it in the below table.

To be continued in a separate post for the higher variant comparison to keep the post clutter free without lot of images.

Mods: I kept the variant comparison in two continuous posts, to keep the comparison for lower/entry level variant and higher variant in separate posts to help keeping the post clutter free. Please feel free to merge the back to back posts if you think otherwise.

Tiago XZ (Rs 4,89,233/-) & WagonR VXi (O) (Rs 4,85,513/-)

Advantage WagonR

Advantage Tiago

Common Features

Subjective Features: Features that could be specific to the car (or) they are just visual elements and probably Manufacturer might have listed them as feature as they might not have enough content to fill up the brochure.

Features that were assumed to be available in both the cars, although they might not have been listed in both the brochures. Assumption for the feature to exist is made against a car that has a blank against it in the below table.

In a nutshell, Tiago offers a lot bang for the buck than even WagonR. Unless one wants to have a high seating position and excellent head room that WagonR offers and the ever debatable ASS (), Tiago should be considered by prospective buyers.

I'll try to do similar exercise for Tiago vs Celerio & Tiago vs Grandi10. Although Grandi10 is from a higher segment, after a quick look at both the brochures, it seems Tiago offers a lot VFM compared to Grandi10.

@mrbaddy - That is an awesome and exhaustive comparison that will help buyers to compare and decide not just which car, but which variant too. Hope mods move your posts to page 1 or to a separate thread.

Being a current owner of a Manza and Nano, I was looking forward to the launch of this car. If only Tata had launched it a couple of months ago, would have added to our family! - we ended up buying a Celerio, which IMHO is a good car for the price, but the Tiago features blow it out of the water.

Any idea if they are working on the AMT/ AT version of this car? Maybe this year end will see me buying one, esp. with the AMT/AT.

BTW, my first post after being a reader for quite some time. Have a soft corner for Indian brands, esp. the Tata. My Manza is a reliable hard working car and the Nano - well, except for one breakdown recently (mine is a 2011 version) due to a faulty valve in the cooling system I have never had any problems with it.

As for the Tiago, looking forward for a test drive and will update soon!

Correct. Specially because the competition check is yet to be published in the official review. The comparo provided by mrbaddy should be of great utility.

There can also be an addition of these intangibles in the "Advanatge WagonR" section - The reliability of the engine and the impressive resale value the WagonR commands in the used car market.

Meanwhile, another update with my booking - While booking the XM D, I wanted to opt for the Option pack, I went to the showroom to confirm that in my booking. Then thought of upgrading to the XT also. After countless permutations and combinations in my head, I zeroed in on XT with the option pack trim. But the sales crew were absolutely clueless as to what option pack I'm talking about.

They called their manager to rescue. Manager intervened and told that there is no such pack available. I had to show the screenshots posted on this thread. Manager says that online literature are usually full of errors. I had to make him understand that the screenshots were taken from the presentation of Tata Motors launch event.

The Manager, then asked me for some time and started making frantic phone calls. Then after 15 mins he came back to me and confessed he was not aware of the option packs. He still tried to discourage me from going for option pack by telling that they aren't manufactured in the general lots and will be made to order and may take indefinite time. I was adamant on having option pack trim and he had to surrender to it. But, no quotations given as they are yet to hear officially about the options pack and its pricing on and over the selected variant from Tata Motors.

Apparently, in their booking systems (computer software/online portal or whatever..), the Diesel trims are still not being displayed is what is told to me and that my order will be punched as soon as the Diesel variants go live in their booking system.

I'm attaching a compilation of the prices for the Petrol and diesel variants in Belgaum for the reference of bhpians in Hubli-Dharwad-Belgaum region.